


One Step Forward

by vesaldi



Category: Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: F/M, Happy 20th Anniversary FF8!, Post-Game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-27 22:52:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17775743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vesaldi/pseuds/vesaldi
Summary: Squall and company are on their way home from a successful contract in Galbadia, and all Squall wants is some quiet time alone to reflect on the day's events. But Rinoa has other plans.





	One Step Forward

**Author's Note:**

  * For [r0nyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/r0nyn/gifts).



For all its speed, sometimes the Ragnarok seemed painfully slow. It wasn't that Squall was in a rush to reach their destination, he just knew that the longer the journey took, the more likely someone would want to talk to him.

As if on cue, Squall heard the automatic doors whir open. _Please don't be Zell_ , Squall thought to himself.

"Hey you," Rinoa's voice floated from the entrance to the passenger compartment, prompting Squall to sigh quietly in relief.

"What do you want?" Squall asked, immediately wincing at the bluntness of his own question. He was relieved to hear Rinoa laugh. Either she'd seen his reflexive grimace, or she'd just finally gotten used to the fact that Squall had no idea how to speak to other human beings.

"Wow," she laughed as she plopped down in the chair next to him. "Should I leave?"

"You sat down before you even asked," Squall reminded her with a straight face. "You wouldn't leave even if I wanted you to."

" _Do_ you want me to?" Rinoa asked, leaning in toward him slightly.

"Of course not." Squall sighed lightly to himself as Rinoa leaned back into her seat with a satisfied smile. He knew she didn't need him to answer her questions - she already knew the answers. He also knew she enjoyed forcing him to say them out loud.

They were on their way back to Garden after a successful - albeit _lengthy_ \- contract in Galbadia. Even with Ultimecia defeated, relations with Galbadia were tense at best. Such animosity could not be washed away overnight, Quistis had reminded them, so regular diplomatic missions had become a must. And Galbadia always insisted that the _new_ sorceress - Rinoa - be present.

"Oh, look!" Rinoa exclaimed, roughly grabbing Squall's collar and pulling him toward her with more force than he would have expected. His gaze followed her outstretched arm, which was pointing toward the observation window. Squall could see the remnants of a shooting star streaking through the night sky. "Do you remember the first time we saw a shooting star?"

 _It was at the SeeD ball_ , Squall thought to himself, _when we first met_.

"Having a conversation with yourself again?" Rinoa asked with a playful smirk as she dipped her head slightly to force Squall to make eye contact with her.

"I remember the ball," Squall assured her. "Why do you think I avoid eye contact with you _now?_ "

Rinoa stared at him for a moment, then a smile blossomed on her face. "You're _teasing_ me!"

 _She seems far too excited about this_. "If I am, I learned it from you."

"You know, I've been thinking about that, actually," Rinoa confessed, stretching her legs out and leaning forward in her chair. "About how much we've learned from each other, I mean."

Squall chuckled lightly. "What have _you_ learned from _me?_ "

"How to be strong and confident when things are tough," Rinoa explained, "and how to rely more on my friends instead of trying to do everything myself."

"There is no way _I_ taught you that second thing," Squall objected, crossing his arms and earning a giggle from Rinoa.

"Not directly," she clarified, "but watching you as you grew over time and learned to trust us helped me see that I still had room to grow, too."

Squall stared at her, brow furrowed and arms still crossed.

"In some ways, I feel like you saved me."

Squall quirked an eyebrow. "How?" he asked. "I assume you don't mean literally."

Rinoa chuckled. "No, although you did _that_ too."

"About a hundred times."

" _You_ learned how to have a sense of humor," Rinoa teased, shoving him playfully. Squall pretended to be annoyed, knowing full well she'd see right through it. He was resisting the urge to smile - an urge that, until recently, had been entirely foreign to him. The harder he tried, the bigger her smile grew.

"Stop looking at me like that," he demanded, his face contorting into what he knew Rinoa would interpret as a pout. She seemed positively delighted.

"Before I met you, I _thought_ I had a purpose," Rinoa continued, still smiling but thankfully otherwise ignoring his expression. "I would liberate Timber. That's what I told myself, over and over. I was doing good work. Important work." Rinoa paused. "In truth, I was just running away from my problems."

Finally, Squall turned his head toward her. She was no longer looking at him. Instead, her head hung down slightly and she seemed to be staring at her shoes. Squall knew that move all too well.

"I was a spoiled rich brat," she added. "I was exactly who you thought I was."

"Hey." Squall reached out and placed a gloved hand on her arm, prompting her to look at him. "I didn't think you were a spoiled rich brat."

Rinoa looked unconvinced. "Oh yeah?'

Squall shrugged slightly, the corner of his mouth tugging into the slightest of smiles. "I didn't know you were rich at the time."

Rinoa laughed in spite of herself and buried her head in his shoulder. "Squall Leonhart..."

"You knew what you were getting into," he told her with a smile, reaching up and stroking her hair. She wrapped her arm around his waist and snuggled deeper into his jacket.

"What about you?" she finally asked.

"Me?"

Rinoa pulled away and looked up at him with a smirk. "I'm not the only one who's changed."

Squall sighed louder than he intended to. "You're worse than Quistis."

"Fact," Rinoa agreed with a giggle. "So come on, talk."

Squall sighed again. "I don't talk."

"I know," Rinoa told him with a pout of her own. "It's endlessly frustrating."

"I've talked _today_ ," Squall pointed out.

"You have," Rinoa agreed with a smirk. "A little."

"That's more than I used to," Squall pointed out, taking a moment to look back up at the observation window. Tired as he was, the stars seemed to streak by as the Ragnarok glided through the air back toward Balamb. Squall had spent so much time as a child looking up at that same sky, hoping the stars would comfort him as he waited for Ellone to come home. Even though she never had, somehow the night sky always calmed him.

"Squall."

Rinoa's voice jarred him back to reality. She stared at him, arms crossed. "Sorry," he muttered, looking away.

"I'm going to get you to voluntarily share your thoughts someday," Rinoa threatened lightheartedly, leaning back into his shoulder and wrapping both arms around him.

Squall smiled in spite of himself. He'd spent so many years alone - convinced that he _must_ be alone - and now that he wasn't it was equal parts exciting and terrifying.

Mostly terrifying.

But he was... happy? Is that what this was? It felt strange. Foreign.

"Squall."

" _Sorry_ ," he repeated with a slight smile.

"I don't think I ever saw you smile."

Squall looked up at her with a frown. "What?"

"Until after... everything," Rinoa explained. "You never smiled. Not once."

"I've smiled," Squall replied defensively.

Rinoa crossed her arms. "Oh yeah? When?"

Squall opened his mouth to respond, but found that the words wouldn't come. _Damn it, she's right, isn't she?_

Rinoa smiled in victory. "You have smiled more in the last ten minutes than you did the entire time I knew you before we defeated Ultimecia."

Squall looked away. "It's not like I had much to smile about."

"Hey." Squall glanced over to see Rinoa looking at him more seriously. "The past is the past, Squall."

"It's just..." he trailed off, debating whether or not to continue. _If I don't, she'll force it out of me anyway. Might as well_. "I don't know how to... let go of the past, you know?"

"It's really hard," Rinoa admitted, bowing her own head slightly. "It's worth it, though."

Squall stared at her for a moment. "So, are you going to mend fences with your dad?'

"What?" she asked, blinking twice in surprise.

"The past is the past," Squall repeated.

Rinoa stared at him.

Squall burst out into laughter. "I'll take that as a no."

Rinoa sighed loudly and shook her head, but she couldn't hide her smile. "You're full of surprises, you know?"

"It's a brave new world, Rinoa," Squall reminded her, his smile not fading.

Rinoa grinned and leaned into him, prompting him to wrap his arm around her. He would be the first to admit that he wasn't good at displays of affection, or even expressing his feelings - _any_ of his feelings - but he knew that for Rinoa he would try.

"HEY!"

Squall hadn't heard the door open. His eyes snapped shut, and he breathed in deeply. _Zell_.

"Oh hey, sorry, am I interrupting?"

"No," Rinoa lied with a sigh loud enough that Squall could tell even _she_ was annoyed. Zell was _definitely_ interrupting, not that he'd ever notice...

"Yo, so Quistis said we're gonna be arriving at Garden in about twenty minutes," Zell explained, plopping down on the other side of Squall. The deathly glare Squall gave him did nothing to deter Zell from his mission.

"Great," Squall told him flatly. Realistically he knew if he didn't tell Zell outright to leave, he would stay there forever. He was sure Rinoa would tease him about _this_ later, too.

"So, did you see that meteor shower?" Zell asked, entirely unphased by both Squall _and_ Rinoa's disgruntled stares. "Pretty wild, huh?"

"Yeah, _wild_ ," Squall replied with a sigh.

"You know what they say about shooting stars, right?" Zell asked, popping out of his seat enthusiastically.

"I'm sure you're going to tell me," Squall sighed.

"You bet," Zell responded with an enthusiastic grin. He didn't seem to notice Rinoa's giggling as he launched into a diatribe on meteor showers. Rinoa squeezed Squall's arm as he sighed.

"This is what it's like," she whispered in his ear, quietly enough that Zell wouldn't hear. "This is what having friends is like."

Squall sighed, but felt his face twist into the smallest of smiles. He might not care about a word Zell was saying, but Zell cared enough to say all the words anyway. Zell wasn't stupid - he knew Squall didn't care. And here he was anyway.

"Hey, Zell," Squall interrupted, much to his friend's surprise.

"Yeah?"

"I don't care about shooting stars," Squall confessed, patting the seat next to him. Zell sat back down, looking at Squall curiously. "How'd your Triple Triad going?"

Zell's eyes lit up, and Squall had to admit that the excitement was contagious. Admit it to _himself_ , of course. He'd never admit it to Rinoa, and he _definitely_ wouldn't admit it to Zell.

"You want some pointers?" Squall asked. He held back a smile as Rinoa squeezed his arm again excitedly.

"Are you serious?" Zell asked with a grin bigger than Squall had ever seen.

"Go get your cards," Squall ordered with an imperceptible smile. Zell bolted out of the passenger compartment.

Rinoa hugged him tightly once they were alone. "You aren't a lost cause after all."

Squall sighed yet again. "You have turned me into a monster."

"Uh huh," Rinoa replied with a grin, reaching up and kissing him on the cheek. Squall felt himself blush and he knew that the smile he was trying to suppress was undoubtedly plain on his face. "You don't have to be embarrassed, you know?"

"Yeah, sure," he replied half-heartedly, once again pulling her closer. "Good luck ever convincing me of _that_."

"Don't challenge me, Squall Leonhart."

"You're stubborn as hell too, I know," Squall responded with a light chuckle, pulling her tighter and lightly kissing her on the head. "I'll get used to it, I guess."

"Good," she said with a smile.

Squall smiled in return. This was going to take some getting used to. But it was worth it. It was totally worth it.


End file.
